A Petition for Right-to-Work

The Hoosier State recently made headlines when Governor Mitch Daniels made Indiana the first “Right-to-Work” state in a decade and the 23rd state in the country to enact this legislation.

Fighting off liberal special interest groups and a Democrat caucus that tried use the disgusting Wisconsin walk-out tactic to kill the bill, Governor Daniels showed the political courage necessary to move his state forward, giving the state’s workers the opportunity to choose the unions they want to associate with.

Inspired by this, I decided to try to attempt the impossible: convincing my local legislators to take up the cause of Right-to-Work for our own state, hopefully joining Indiana and the other 22 states that have chosen freedom over the iron fist of big labor. Unfortunately, I live in ultra-liberal Massachusetts, where anything that hurts big labor’s grip on power is met with hostility by the unions and the politicians that unashamedly show off their union connections. Regardless, I still went ahead and wrote a letter detailing my stance on the issue, addressing my representatives as well as the leadership of both parties in both the House and Senate:

January 28, 2012

To Whom It May Concern,

As I am sure you are well aware, Governor Mitch Daniels in Indiana has just succeeded in making Indiana the newest “Right to Work” state in a decade. Governor Daniels did this because he was aware that “Right to Work” states have seen greater job growth, and faster unemployment drops than non-“Right to Work” states.

Unlike what many labor unions claim about this policy, making Massachusetts a “Right to Work” state would be greatly beneficial to our state’s job seekers and job creators. It will also help end the culture of corruption that many outside the Commonwealth associate with us, since it would decrease the cronyism between the State House and labor unions that we have a reputation for. Also, such a policy wouldn’t end organized labor in the Commonwealth; that is a common misconception. Instead, it would make due-payments to union bosses non-automatic, allowing the workers, public and private, the freedom to choose whether or not a union may represent them or not, rather than have it be automatic, something that I regard as a violation of the freedom of association. It will also demonstrate to businesses, both national and international, that we are a business-friendly state, where competition is encouraged and workers are not forced to pay dues to unions that are increasingly demonstrating more care for their own political influence than for the workers they are supposed to represent.

According to otherwise left-leaning website Politifact, 9 of the top 10 states in job growth over the past decade have been “Right to Work”. Also, even though our country has seen the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression, the 22 states that are deemed “Right to Work” have experienced, on average, a 3.7% growth in jobs, compared with only a 2.8% growth in the other 28 states, which includes Massachusetts. In addition, businesses all across the country want to move their operations to these states, like Boeing, who opened up a plant in South Carolina, a “Right to Work” state, due to the excess strikes and radical leadership of its unionized workforce in Washington State which forced the change in address so the company could remain a strong force for jobs and innovation in America.

With your support, Massachusetts could be the 24th state to join this community, and would help reinforce our growing economy with a permanent guarantee that workers need not join a union that takes a chunk out of their paychecks if they don’t consent to do so, and businesses would be able to grow without having to please politically connected unions who only crave power rather than support the interests of workers.